Wilma M. Sanders January 6, 1918-April 2, 2014

My grandmother passed away yesterday. She was 96 years old, and up until recently in pretty good health. I have such fond memories of her. One of my favorite things as a kid was spending the night at grandma's house. We would run around and play in her yard all day long. She was the best cook ever. Even scrambled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches tasted the best at her house. Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve dinners are still the stuff of legend. The day we moved from Gaffney to Utah when I was almost 13, we stopped by Grandma's house for one last breakfast. She made biscuits and gravy, eggs and grits. It was hard to say good bye. When I moved back in high school to swim with my old club in Spartanburg, I would go to her house on the weekends when I could get a ride. There was never any pressure. I would lounge around and read Betty Neels novels, one of her favorites, and eat amazing but simple food. She never had a big sweet tooth. Zucchini bread and Bryer's vanilla ice cream were pretty much the extent of her sweets, along with the best pecan pie imaginable. I am so grateful that I took the opportunity to take my children to see her 6 years ago, rather than go to Costa Rica, as Marshall had originally been planning. She was 90 at the time and still living on her own in the same house she and my grandpa moved into when he came home from WWII in 1945. They just sold that house this past year.  Although I am glad that she is at peace and not suffering, it is strange to know that she is gone. I will miss her. 

Hiking to the Y

Marshall had never done it before, so since the weather was nice but a little cool, and Samantha and Amy had a rare Saturday off from swimming, we decided to hike it. Samantha had gone with friends to the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork so it was just Scott and Amy. (side note: kids from the festival of colors are still trying to wash the color out of their hair). Scott had a hard time. He had a pretty bad asthma attack on Friday morning at swim team, and his breathing was still a little raspy. We took it easy and made it up in about an hour. We packed a lunch and ate it at the top before heading back down. It only took 20 minutes to get down.

Short Course Sectionals 2014

March is crazy with all the big meets, but finally Samantha got to go to sectionals in Federal Way, WA. She has worked really hard and has been waiting for this meet ever since she qualified last summer. We decided to take Scott and Amy along to watch. Although Samantha didn't swim as well as we'd hoped, it gave her some good experience racing at big meets. It also gave us some ideas on things we can tweak in her training, like getting stronger. After the meet, we spent some time in downtown Seattle. They had beautiful spring flowers at Pike Place Market.

 Tons of fresh fish. I so wanted to buy some to take home and cook, but obviously that wouldn't have worked.

 The gum wall was disgusting. The kids were determined to see it. We also had to go by the very first Starbucks for Samantha. I really didn't care about it so I only took a picture of Samantha in front of it on her phone.

 The Troll under the Bridge. I have to say: kind of creepy.

 We left Seattle for Hood River, Oregon to see Marshall's brother and his family. We had hoped to be able to stop by Ephrata to see our good friends, the Pughs, but we could only manage one stop since the kids had already missed an entire week of school. We stayed the night with Milton and they treated us to a great breakfast at a local diner. We stopped by a park along the river to stretch our legs before making the long drive back home. It was an exhausting trip and after we got back it took another week to get everyone caught up with their school work before the term ended.

 Samantha and Amy warming up at the pool in Federal Way. Can't wait for Amy to be able to compete as well.

 Mongolian BBQ.

 Seattle

Age Group State 2014

 It is crazy busy at State. I coach all 7 sessions and Marshall officiates so I don't take any pictures or videos, which is a shame because I miss some great races. I got a pic of Amy and her good friends Anne Merie and McKenna. They are such cute girls and all swam so well. Amy had a really great meet. I wasn't expecting a lot because she had a great meet just 2 weeks before down at St. George but she surprised me again. She got 8th in the 1650 with a 19.53. She went a 2:09 in the 200 free and made it to consolation finals, which was the most surprising swim for her. Then that night at finals she dropped another second and went a low 2:08. I was blown away. The 500 was her best swim of the meet. She went a 5:44 in prelims and made it back to the championship final in 7th place. That night she went dropped another 3 seconds! I was so proud of her. Although she got 5th in the 1000, it was not the best swim. She went under 12 minutes barely with 11:59, but it was only 2 seconds than she was out in the 1650. I was so busy trying to coach my other swimmers that I didn't get her warmed up soon enough and she was waiting to do pace work, so I take some of the blame. Still, she had a great meet. She also swam in 2 of the relays and did an outstanding job. Scott really had a subpar meet. He just couldn't seem to get going. The one exception was his 500 free (it's a Buker thing apparently). He made it back to consolation finals and dropped 14 seconds for a 6:17. Afterwards we all met up at Pizza Pie Cafe, per tradition. Once all the stress of the meet is over, it is nice to get together and have some fun.

Reading

This is how Scott reads in the morning before school. It is rather cute. 

Scott turns 11

Scott had his birthday party at the Space Center and invited 7 other boys along for the ride. They had so much fun. He really loved his party and had lots of Legos to build when it was all over. He probably won't have too many parties after this, so I'm glad he got a fun party this year. 

Last Pinewood Derby

Thank goodness it's the last one. It's a lot of work. Scott won again this year!! His car is the red one. It was smoking fast. They had a derby car cake that was super cute and tasted really good. It was a fun night. Marshall couldn't be there, so I filmed each race and sent it to him. Scott was very proud. 

The priest and laurels decided to do a pinewood derby as well. Samantha's car is the Hershey Bar. She was so excited about it. Though it wasn't as fast as Scott's car, it still won. Boys still don't like to lose to a girl!

Turning 41

Marshall decided to make his own birthday cake this year. He was very pleased with how it turned out. We kept things pretty low key this year; Just a simple dinner and cake.